2014 World Book & Copyright Day
There are many reasons for selecting April 23 as World Book & Copyright Day. One of those reasons is to honour some famous writers whose birth or death anniversary falls on that date. The names of those writers included Miguel de Cervantes, Maurice Druon, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Haldor Kiljan Laxness, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and William Shakespeare.
On April 23, 2014 the National Library marked the occasion with a book exhibition, and a lecture delivered by Ms Abiola Inniss, a Ph. D. Law and Public Policy Researcher at Walden University, USA. Her lecture titled-‘Copyright Today: local and international perspectives’ was an invitation and inspiration to the creators of words and the creators of ideas to get a move on before we are all left behind.
Ms. Inniss graciously opened her discourse on the subject with the following words: “In the Caribbean region, we honour the works of those writers who have contributed to our cultural heritage as a region – Jean Rhys, Merle Hodge, V.S. Naipaul, Samuel Selvon and numerous others. Most importantly we pay tribute to the long list of Guyanese authors who have documented our history, moulded and promoted our culture, fed our curiosity, shaped our national consciousness and sense of belonging, and fired our loyalties. I think of the well-known and celebrated authors – Martin Carter, Arthur. J Seymour, Edgar Mittelholzer, Wilson Harris, Jan Carew, A.L Luker (composer of the lyrics of the National Anthem), Walter Mac A. Lawrence ( who wrote the words for the National Song, ‘O Beautiful Guyana’, the music was composed by the great Valerie Rodway), Ian McDonald and the lesser known such as Mercedes Pierre Dubois, J.W. Chinapen, Mahadai Das, Shana Yardan, Helen Taitt, Henry Josiah, Ivan Forrester, Maureen Prince, Donald Trotman and Jacqueline De Weever.”
“I think that it is only fitting that we create a Day of National Observance and establish a monument to honour and promote the work of the hundreds of Guyanese authors and creators who remain unsung and unknown. It is important that we honour our literary heritage.”[Afterwards, Ms Inniss was informed of the establishment of the National Library Hall of Fame for the Literary Arts.]
I have singled out the above extract because Ms. Inniss weighed in heavily on what is [not] happening in various countries of the region and what is [not] happening in Guyana. (More on that later but there is an urgency to get to the point where we could be left behind without a paddle in a canoe going against the rapids)
Technology and the speed of the internet
On this subject, Ms Inniss said, in recent decades intellectual property has become an imposing element in the world economy because of the exponential growth of the internet and internet based economic activities which touch every aspect of life from international trade to internet dating. The concept of intellectual property is premised on creations of the mind or so called intangibles which are literary and artistic works, symbols and designs and names and images used in commerce among others. Intellectual property is generally protected by law in the forms of patents, trademarks, and copyright which are part of the domestic laws in most countries but which now also extends to the international law in the form of international intellectual property law and have several international regimens attached such as the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
International Intellectual Property law is a patchwork of intersecting multilateral and bilateral agreements and their resulting harmonization of national laws. This is an area that has increased in importance and has seen very frequent litigation, especially in the areas of patent, trademarks and copyright. Additionally, there has been clamouring for the protection of domain names, software, databases, and traditional knowledge which are new forms of protection. These cutting edge intellectual property issues are often dealt with at the level of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Along with these forms of protection trade globalization has had a direct effect on the harmonization of national laws through WTO and the TRIPS agreement as well as regional organizations such as the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO). The lesser known areas of law include rights of publicity, moral rights, misappropriation, unfair competition, geographical indications of origin, trade dress, licensing, plant variety protection, integrated circuit protection and paracopyright (which includes laws which prohibit the circumvention of anti-pirating technology). Paracopyright is a term that refers to an umbrella of legal protections above and beyond traditional copyright. It is also sometimes called “pseudocopyright” or “metacopyright.” The most often cited example is “legal protection for technical measures” from the 1996 WIPO Internet treaties. Paracopyright provisions in these treaties are not about the term or scope of copyright, but instead are about providing legal protections for the technologies that may be used by copyright holders.
Paracopyright affords legal protection to technologies that claim to be used to protect copyrights, but that are ineffective in doing so. For example, a technical measure cannot stop a technically sophisticated person who decides to infringe copyright. To use the “digital locks” analogy, there is no need to “pick the lock” as the keys necessary to decode the content are already embedded within authorised access technology. The locked content as well as the technology containing the key is commercially available to an infringer. As long as one person decodes a technical measure, the decoded content can be made available to others in the same way as if the technical measure never existed.
The effects of these technical measures are to impose specific contractual license agreements on those conforming to copyright law. The concept of paracopyright is possibly better understood as a part of contract law and not copyright law. It is notable however that those important regulations regarding consumer protection and the “freedom to contract” are not directly included in paracopyright laws, potentially creating imbalances in the law and harmful unintended consequences in the forms of open-ended legal issues.
It is an interesting fact that physical property can sometimes contain elements of intellectual property as in the case where a piece of machinery is based on a patent, a book may have material which has been previously copyrighted or a website may have copyrighted pictures. Intellectual property laws often define what a person can do or not with the intangible or with a copy of the tangible.
We are living in exciting times at the cutting edge of law and technology. More than ever before, the creation and dissemination of information is swift and easy and may take a variety of formats. For publishers traditional functions, processes and infrastructure technologies are fast becoming obsolete along with traditional copyright law. The Gutenberg system which was used by publishers for more than five hundred years is hardly relevant today. The Gutenberg press system mechanized copying and made copyright necessary, digitization has moved us far beyond ink and paper and created a complex web of issues which deal with international and municipal law, economics, public policy and the public interest, all of which are inevitably connected to the issue of enforcement of the laws.
The traditional methods of publishing comprises multinational conglomerates with many layers of management, producing several imprints, time sensitive physical inventories, and processes that takes months and sometimes years before a book gets published. In today’s world anyone, anywhere can be a published writer and anyone can be a publisher and it happens instantaneously. This occurrence has radically decentralised the marketplace and we have seen the results of this. In the United States major book stores have gone out of business or are severely challenged to remain competitive, that is to keep the interest of the general consumer. Borden bookstore chain filed for bankruptcy and went out of business a few years ago, because of competition from the Amazon conglomerate, which provides e-books at a far cheaper price and affords immediate access to them through a variety of means including several versions of its e-reader tablet called the Amazon Kindle, all the while retaining robust trade in hard copy books which can be shipped to your door by express in several countries world -wide. Barnes and Noble has remained competitive by providing similar services and a Nook series of tablet e-readers along with hard copy books. The smartphone and tablet innovations have added to options through which people can access information. This has caused some very specific challenges to arise both for general consumers and the legal systems.
Data found on a computer can be subject to attack anywhere in the world, forcing courts into an interesting analysis of conflicts of laws, particularly considering the variation remaining after the ratification of The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. (To be continued)
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com
By Petamber Persaud
